Reach for the Stars
by sydneysages
Summary: When you're in a committed relationship which absolutely nobody else knows about, is it even a relationship? A story of Rose, Scorpius and the necessary interactions with the Potter-Weasley-Lupin clan.


It's been a very long time since I last wrote Scorrose, so I apologise in advance.

* * *

It was 9:04am on a Wednesday, and Rose Weasley was fast asleep in Scorpius Malfoy's flat. If this had been a Saturday, this wouldn't have been a problem. If this had occurred at her home, it would still have been problematic because she was late for work, but it would have been easier to resolve for a number of reasons.

As it was, Rose was asleep in a flat on the other side of England to her own, whilst her younger cousin, Lily, was going to apparate into her empty flat in three, two, one…

BANG!

Both Rose and Scorpius bolted upright, Rose accidentally whacking Scorpius in the face with a flailing limb, as a bright red man danced and screamed in mid-air.

"Merlin!" Scorpius exclaimed, rubbing the corner of his mouth as he spoke. "What in the name of Merlin's best underwear is _that_?"

Rose shook her head as she leapt out of bed, landing with a painful bang on the wooden flooring. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, _shit_! I'm fucked." When she caught sight of the slightly reproaching look on Scorpius' face, she rolled her eyes. "What? Just because you're too chicken to say anything more than Merlin's underpants doesn't mean that we all are. _Fuck_ , where's my bra?" She began looking through the pile of her clothing on the floor, desperately trying to find the first of many layers of clothing. Damn her decision yesterday to wear an outfit which actually required effort to put on.

"You still haven't answered the question about what on earth that racket – _which is still going on_ – is, Weazie." Scorpius was lying back in bed again, though he didn't look comfortable in the slightest; his hands were clamped over his ears, his face contorted in what looked like pain.

"It's my intruder alert on my flat," Rose explained, now wearing a complete set of underwear. She was now holding the dress which presented the next challenge. "It's programmed to alert me immediately, and continually, until I turn it off or go and investigate. It must be Lily to meet me to go to the office – _why_ did we make the decision to come to yours last night?" She looked up at Scorpius briefly, her brow furrowing. Why aren't you getting ready for work, we're late!"

"Please. Turn. It. Off," Scorpius replied through gritted teeth, ignoring Rose's question about his apparent lack of desire to go to work.

"You've got my wand from whatever kinky practice it was you wanted it for last night – just point it at the alarm. Dammit, I've lost an earring – and a shoe! Am I _ever_ getting to fucking work?" She kicked the side of the bed in frustration, and though it helped release a little of her irritation, the sudden pain made her decide it hadn't been worth it.

"And so Lily's still at the flat?" Scorpius asked as he sat upright to look for Rose's wand. Upon finding it, he pointed it at the alarm, the foolishness he felt at doing so fading the moment that the racket stopped. "Accio Rose's other earring that she's lost."

The earring flew from across the room to hit Scorpius in the face, though Rose had it in her ear faster than he could blink.

" _Obviously_ she is, idiot. Fuck, how am I going to explain not being there?"

"You met a tall, dark stranger last night who swept you off your feet to have fantastic sex?" Scorpius tried to joke, but one look at Rose's stormy expression told him it had been a mistake – a major one.

" _Maybe_ if you didn't insist on keeping us so quiet it's as if we don't exist, Lily wouldn't always be an accidental cockblocker," Rose snapped, pulling her shoe on. " _Maybe_ if you weren't so embarrassed by me, we could be normal – and I could stop being so late for work!"

Scorpius didn't know what to say; the silence that had descended upon the room seemed never ending and unbreakable, at least until Rose grabbed her wand and said, "I won't be coming over tonight."

With a bang, she disapparated, leaving a stunned Scorpius behind.

.-.

"So where _were_ you this morning?" Lily asked Rose as they stood in the queue to reach the sandwich fridge in the staff canteen. As they inched closer she added, "if there's a cheese and pickle, grab it. Greg got the last one yesterday and I had to deal with his smug face all afternoon."

Rose, being slightly taller than her cousin, strained to look above their colleagues' heads in order to look at the selection of sandwiches on offer. In an effort to avoid answering Lily's question, she began to narrate all the sandwiches she could see. "Well, on the top shelf there's…just ham, then what looks like ham on brown bread meaning there's mayo in it…and also tuna sandwiches. I can see something that looks like cheese…"

"Rose." Lily's tone was firm. "I know which sandwiches we sell. Why weren't you at home?"

Unable to avoid the question for a second time, Rose took a few seconds to reply. "I went for a run, lost track of the time, and ended up getting back just after you tried to get into the flat. Sorry, by the way, if I made you late."

She wasn't quite sure if the noise that came out of Lily's mouth was more of a snort or a laugh, but either way, it was loud – loud enough for everyone in the queue to turn and look at them for a brief moment of time.

"Sorry but that's the funniest thing I've ever heard," Lily replied, still spluttering. " _You_ go for _run_ in a morning? You set five alarms just to make yourself turn the heating on, then set another ten to get yourself to work vaguely on time." She leaned in closer to Rose, her voice lowered. "Also, you're wearing yesterday's clothes."

They moved a step forwards this time, ever closer to Lily's goal of getting the last cheese and pickle sandwich.

"No I'm not!" Rose exclaimed. "Yesterday, my dress was black and white, remember? The one I got with you."

Raising an eyebrow, Lily shot her cousin a knowing look, one that suggested that it was a mistake for Rose to have even attempted to best her. "Yes, we did go shopping together and buy that dress; that's how I know that it's the same one. You've just done a cheeky colour swap on it, to make it purple and white; they definitely didn't sell it or you'd have bought that instead. Now tell me, who's the tall, dark and handsome stranger who managed to bed you?"

Spluttering, Rose could feel herself blushing; her cheeks had always flushed red the moment she felt the slightest embarrassment, which had always been unfortunate her family's reputation. There was no way she could carry on with the poor 'I went for a run' excuse that her boss had accepted.

"First off, you should have taken your dad's job as head of the Auror department; you're too good at noticing things," Rose started, noting how little Lily's expression changed. Uncle Harry had died two years before, and only recently had Lily stopped wincing whenever he was mentioned. "Secondly, yes, there was a guy but it's definitely not serious; I really don't think I'll see him again."

"So it's not someone from work then? Shame, I was looking forward to watching you try and sneakily meet up around the building. Get a shift on, Rosie, or else icky Greg will run up by us and get the last sandwich!"

Thinking that her cousin cared a little too much about this competition with Greg, Rose simply shook her head as she took a tiny step closer to the sandwich fridge. Something had to be done about this queuing system, she thought; whilst it had worked when approximately fifty people worked in the Wizard-Muggle liaison office, it just wasn't feasible nowadays. With the expansion of Muggle technology into the wizarding world came a greater infrastructure to ensure that there was consistency between the two groups. What was a crime in the Muggle world was now, largely due to Rose's efforts in petitioning the Wizarding Parliament, also a crime in the wizarding world. This had led to the streamlining of all legislation in the Ministry of Magic. It was in this sector of the Muggle Relations Department that both Rose and Lily worked; located in Manchester, it was the only department which resided outside of the Ministry building.

All this meant was that it took thirteen minutes to reach the front of the lunch queue rather than four, and made the staff working in the canteen grumpy.

"Nah, he's too _posh_ to work somewhere like this. He's in law." Immediately, Rose regretted speaking; there were only so many men who worked in wizarding law who were under the age of thirty. Most prominent of them all was, of course, Scorpius.

Thankfully though, they had almost reached the sandwich fridge, and Lily's gaze was fixated on the cheese and pickle sandwich…and the man standing beside the fridge. He turned round to face the queue and waved and smiled before picking up the sandwich Lily wanted.

"Son of a bitch," Lily muttered.

And with that, Rose knew she had dodged a bullet…for now.

.-.

When she returned home that evening with a massive wodge of paperwork, Rose had received fourteen missed calls, three text messages, and a patronus message, all of which were from Scorpius. Immediately, she set the phone down and turned it over so that she wouldn't see the screen flash up with another message; she also silenced the patronus message, and moved into another room so that she wouldn't see Scorpius's face.

Perhaps she had overreacted. That would be a fair assumption to make based on the situation of the morning: it looked as though she had overslept and, irritated at herself, had taken it out on Scorpius and his refusal to let anyone know they were in a relationship.

The truth was though that this had been going on a lot longer than just one incident. For six months, all she had heard was 'we need to keep it quiet – no one will be happy we're together,' or words to that effect. At first, she had agreed; there had been too much bad blood between the Potter-Weasley and the Malfoy clans for them to be an accepted couple: after all, Uncle Harry had had Draco Malfoy's gambling problem exposed, and Scorpius's friends (though admittedly not Scorpius himself) had played a major part in Albus's suicide attempt.

But that was behind them now. Most of the wizarding world had accepted Draco's problem, and Albus had, after therapy, acknowledged the fact that the bullying he had undergone was not condoned by Scorpius. It was for this latter reason alone that Rose had even spoken to Scorpius at the event at which he had first asked her to go for a drink.

It had been in January of this year, she recalled, at an event here many of the Ministry's Department Heads had met with various other wizarding professionals to renegotiate contracts for the good of the wizarding people. It was dry, intense negotiations which Rose wasn't even a part of; she had been brought along by her boss so that she could 'acclimate to the atmosphere' as she would be taking over 'in a few years'. The only good things about it were that there was free wine and she didn't have to conduct any business. Which was a good thing – because she was planning on consuming as much as possible without embarrassing herself.

Scorpius had been the only other person she recognised, other than her boss, though she didn't seek him out. They had never been _that_ close at Hogwarts; though they got along better than their parents and she appreciated him as a partner at NEWT level Potions, he wasn't someone she would go and spill her deepest, darkest secrets to. Hell, he wasn't even someone she would have invited to Hogsmeade.

But somehow, between glasses four and five of the wine, they'd bumped into each other and gotten chatting. In the ten years since leaving Hogwarts, they hadn't spoken properly; the inter-family feuding had seen to that. It was only on glass seven that Rose recognised just how comfortable she felt with Scorpius, just as she had in Potions. Where other members of her family had struggled to be in the same room as a Malfoy – particularly given the bullying ring in Slytherin – she had never had that problem, though she had frequently pretended otherwise.

By glass ten, they had recapped the entirety of the elapsing decade since school. By glass eleven, the business had been wrapped up and Rose's presence was no longer necessary.

There was no glass twelve—at the party, anyway.

The first time, it was her suggestion that they kept what had happened under wraps. She didn't want to be the subject of office gossip and she was pretty certain that her family wouldn't be able to handle it, what with aftermath of Uncle Harry's death and Albus's issues. Her family was her priority.

"This isn't going to happen again," she had told him as she had gotten dressed the next morning, watching as his trademark smirk slipped onto his lips. "I'm serious, Scorpius. It can't."

It had, of course; he'd been called into her department to offer some assistance with a particularly challenging case, and he'd asked her out for a drink.

Over the course of the next few months, Rose had found herself falling for Scorpius…and at the same time, recognising the fact that her family were stronger than she had thought. And, upon occasion, much more accepting. They'd accepted Victoire's decision to leave her wand – and therefore her magic – with them whilst she ventured into the Muggle world, and Albus had, with help, set up an organisation to help others who had been in his situation. Maybe, she thought, they could accept her dating Scorpius.

It just so happened that Scorpius had decided that he wasn't ready to tell the world. It had started with him not wanting office gossip, just like Rose. Then it was, "my parents, my dad especially, aren't going to accept this. I'll be disowned." And then, finally, "maybe it's better just keeping it quiet, something where we can be our real selves."

Apparently, her response that there was a difference between keeping it 'quiet' and keeping it so quiet it didn't exist to anyone other than themselves was inappropriate.

With a sigh, Rose shook her head out of the memories and focused back on the proposal that had been at the top of her to-read pile for three days. It was interesting – a proposal for a new integrated Muggle-wizard university. It just wasn't quite interesting enough to stop her mind slipping to Scorpius every two seconds.

.-.

Three days passed, and Rose still hadn't spoken to Scorpius directly. When the stream of constant texts and calls became too much for her (and her phone) to handle, she sent him a short, direct text which said, "got too much work to do. I'll speak to you after The Event."

"The Event" was the codeword to describe Teddy Lupin's upcoming thirtieth birthday. Whilst he was aware that his Weasley-Potter clan were planning something major, nobody had let slip any details – on pain of having 'snitch' written on their face in pimples. It was a throwback to their parents' generation, after Uncle Bill had 'accidentally' let slip that Rose's mum had cursed someone with this same punishment, albeit for a much more serious reason.

Planning for "The Event" had begun six months ago, with the night involving trips to three different countries, fourteen different bars, and speaking four different languages, culminating in a huge party held at _Galleons Away_. This was the only wizarding building outside of the Ministry and Hogwarts which had a room big enough for the number of guests invited, as well as being appropriate for the multitude of generations attending. Initial suggestions included James's idea to hold a major party at _Gotts_ , the wizarding nightclub, where all guests competed to be the most drunk, and Roxanne's literally underwater theme so that guests could appreciate the mermaid form.

The purpose of "The Event"'s structure was to make Teddy confused: just who was he spending his 30th with, in which country, and what should he wear? The only thing that the Weasley-Potter clan knew that Teddy _definitely_ knew was that he would be the drunkest person in the room. Other than that, all bets were off as to what "The Event" entailed.

As Teddy's night out drew nearer, Rose found herself thinking of Scorpius more and more. She had hinted at an invitation for him, something he had turned down – he wouldn't be welcome, he had said, even though the clan had authorised him receiving an invitation. When she had found his crumpled in the rubbish bin in his room, she had gone beserk, asking him why he couldn't attend one family event with her. Only when she had accepted that it would probably have caused more problems than it was worth (her cousins had let slip that the only reason he was invited was because they wanted to prank him, Weasley style) did she begrudgingly drop the issue.

"Rose, have you prepared yourself for dancing naked on the table in the main hall?"

Rose vaguely heard a question directed at her, and she began to say, "yes," before realising what Lily had said.

"Lily!" Rose hissed, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "What on earth are you on about?"

"Well, much like at work recently, _you_ were distracted. We weren't sure if you were listening – can't have our Chief Organiser not paying attention, can we?"

"So who is he?" Roxanne leaned forward, making it clear that her question was directed at Rose.

"Who's who?" Rose replied. Her heart was beating faster and faster; it couldn't seriously be obvious that there was a man involved…right?

"Who's the man who has managed to get Rose Weasley distracted is what Roxanne meant," Albus said, his eyes twinkling. "I'm intrigued too. Whoever he is, he's managed a feat none of us have ever managed before: to distract you from organising. I mean, organisation is practically what your blood is made of."

"He's nobody you know," Rose muttered, wishing desperately that this conversation would come to an end. "Can we move onto finalising the order of pubs for Saturday night, please? I was thinking—"

"Come _on_ , Rosie, you've gotta give us _something_!" Lily pressed, while Albus and Hugo shouted, "YES! We knew there was a boy! Is he coming Saturday?"

Rose shook her head, gritted her teeth, and picked up her pen. After counting to ten, she replied, "there _was_ a man. Past tense. He's not around anymore, so no, you won't meet him."

.-.

Saturday rolled around faster than Rose expected, and soon, she was getting ready for Teddy's party. Almost absentmindedly she checked her phone almost every minute, checking to see if Scorpius had texted her.

He hadn't. Evidently, he had heeded her warning about being busy and had decided to give her the space she had asked for. Even though he was only doing _exactly_ what she had asked him to do, Rose felt disappointed. She wanted to speak to him; she wasn't even particularly mad anymore. She just wanted to see him and sort it out, face-to-face: either they went public in the near future, or they split up.

But even as she thought this, Rose was sure that she wouldn't go through with the ultimatum. She loved Scorpius, she was sure of it, and she wasn't sure that she could give that up, even to go public. Even if her family didn't know about him, surely she could stand the secrecy for another few months?

Rose shook her head, trying to shake the thought of Scorpius out of her mind – until tomorrow, anyway. Tonight was Teddy's night, and she wasn't going to ruin it by moping around.

…

"And so Teddy, Danny, Hugo and Albus should arrive in three…two…one…" Rose announced, pleased that the tell-tale crack which accompanied apparition occurred a split-second after she said 'one'. She had gone out for a drink with Teddy earlier on in the night, something which had allowed her to get to _Galleons Away_ to make sure that the party was set up properly. Some of the staff probably wanted her guts for garters – including Polly, who had been in the same year as Rose at Hogwarts – but at least Rose knew that the job had been done properly.

"Surprise!" The entire Weasley-Potter clan announced to Teddy as he stood upon a stage, noticeably already worse for wear. Evidently, the boys hadn't stuck to Rose's one drink per establishment rule, though she couldn't exactly blame them. Teddy's wild streak was well known to them all.

After the standard announcements, presents and cake-cutting which were staple features of every Weasley-Potter-Lupin get together, and after Teddy had made an attempt at a speech, the festivities began properly. Rose immediately went to get a large glass of chardonnay, noting ruefully that the last time she had been drinking at a party, she had met Scorpius.

"Rose! Come dance!" Lily shouted over the music, grabbing Rose's wrist and dragging her onto the dancefloor. There was no choice in the matter: if Lily decided you were the one she wanted to dance with, you went.

An hour, four glasses of wine and three group hugs later, Rose took the opportunity to sit down. Lily had disappeared along with most of her cousins, and she didn't fancy talking politics with anyone in her dad's generation. So she sat down on a bench near the edge of the room, and took the opportunity to look at her phone.

Once again, no missed calls and no messages from Scorpius.

Stubbornly jutting her lip out, Rose took her phone in both hands and unlocked it, pressing the 'new message' button. This was a bad idea, that much was obvious to her, but the wine made her continue until she had typed a full message to Scorpius.

 _We need to talk. I miss you. You're wrong, I'm wrong (except I'm not really), but we're GOOD together, aren't we? This is probably the wine talking – same wine as the one we had when we met at that stupid party, hahaha – but we're GOOD together, we really work. Your hair is really cute by the way. But nowhere near as cute as your butt. I miss you. Ring me?_

Her inner, sober voice was screaming at her not to press send, but she did anyway. What harm could it do?

Mere seconds after she pressed send, the music quietened, and the lights brightened; both of these actions turned the crowd almost silent in expectation.

Rose frowned. This definitely wasn't part of the plan – she had itemised the schedule on a minute by minute basis, and the lights were meant to stay down low for at least another ninety minutes.

Nothing made sense until a certain blond-haired boy walked out onto the stage and, suddenly, Rose understood everything.

Wearing the smartest tuxedo Rose had ever seen, Scorpius swaggered his way into the centre of the stage, picking up the floating microphone upon his arrival. Behind him stood the missing Weasley-Potter cousins – whilst it didn't make any sense, at least it explained where they had disappeared to.

"Forgive the interruption, ladies and gentlemen, and apologies to Mr Teddy Lupin for gatecrashing his birthday party, but I just had something I needed to get off my chest in front of a _very_ large audience," Scorpius began, his voice as clipped and formal as it had ever been. "First and foremost, can we please find a Miss Rose Weasley? Yes, that's Rose Weasley, she's probably sitting down or something."

Within seconds, a spotlight had been directed at Rose, with the crowd around her melting away: she was alone, and the focal point of almost all of the attention.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am upon this very high stage this evening to make an announcement. Many months ago, I met a girl with brilliant red hair and an uncanny ability to come up with a retort to absolutely _anything_ for the first time since we left Hogwarts. And, almost immediately, I fell for her." As he spoke, Scorpius's eyes met Rose's, and it was if they were alone, as if he was speaking to her and her alone.

"She agreed to go on a date with me, and then another, and then another…and so the pattern continued. However, with this being a story of star-crossed lovers – or just a story involving a Malfoy and a Weasley, whichever phrase you feel is more appropriate – it's unsurprising that this isn't the end." Scorpius paused for effect, and also to allow the room a smattering of intended laughter.

As soon as the room fell silent again, Scorpius continued, his eyes still firmly on Rose. "And so we were a secret. Nobody knew – though Lily tells me that she definitely suspected and she definitely suspected me, so I'm surprised I'm still alive to this day, to be honest – and whilst that was great at first, it gradually became a burden. I didn't know how to announce to the world that I'm in love with Rose Weasley, so I kept it a secret. But now I know how…"

For the first time in over a minute, Scorpius broke eye contact with Rose, and instead turned to look briefly at Lily. With a short, sharp nod, Lily in turn looked at the other cousins, who each raised their wand to the ceiling.

Over the course of about ten seconds, a series of candles appeared, gradually coalescing to form two people kissing, as well as the words "SCORPIUS LOVES ROSE".

"So, ladies and gentlemen, feel free to share the message you have learned here tonight: that I love Rose Weasley and, if she's still not too mad at me, that we're in a relationship. So sorry to all you young ladies, but I'm off the market."

.-.

Somehow, after a couple of minutes without any dramatic speeches, the crowd stopped paying attention to Rose and Scorpius, and instead began to gossip about what they had seen. A fair few cameras recorded evidence of Scorpius's aerial revelation, and Rose was pretty confident that something would appear in the Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly the next day. But she didn't care.

"That was pretty dramatic," Rose commented as she came face to face with Scorpius since the day in his flat. "I'm almost impressed at how organised you were…but how did you get Lily and co on board?"

Scorpius grinned, putting his arm around Rose's shoulders. "It's all because of my alluring personality -hey, there's no need to hit me! Just kidding, I went to her office, took some Veritaserum, and survived her extremely brutal questioning. If the Auror office are ever looking for interrogators, I think she'd fit in perfectly."

For the first time in her life, Rose was speechless. "You took Veritaserum? For me?" This was something she had never expected. Scorpius had refused to take Veritaserum during the periods of unrest between their families – particularly after the Albus incident. He had said that he had nothing deep and meaningful to confess, and that nobody should be forced to tell the truth when they had done nothing wrong.

So that he had taken it to prove how much he loved her – well, it was something.

It was more than something: it was everything.

"I love you, Scorpius," Rose whispered. "Sorry for being so stubborn."

As Scorpius brushed his lips against hers, he murmured, "well, I absolutely need a girl who thinks that my hair is cute, but appreciates the absolute marvel that is my backside."

Rose blushed, but as soon as their lips met, she didn't care anymore. They were officially together, her parents knew (along with half of the wizarding world), and nobody had threatened to lock anyone up with a dragon. "The Event" had turned out pretty damn well.

* * *

I've forgotten how to end stories, so I apologise for the slightly (very) rubbish ending. Hope you enjoyed! If you have any ideas about stories I could write in the future, please let me know!


End file.
